Cities of Hyboria Reviews?

[BluSponge]

Hey all,

After a casual flip through this book at a F(Not So)LGS, I'm really curious as to utility of this book as a general city sourcebook. I've looked around but aside from two posts on this forum, I haven't seen ANYTHING about Cities. Granted, it's pretty new. City sourcebooks are a weakness of mine. One of my cherished resources is a copy of Runequest Cities, and in the 20 years I've owned it, I've never found its equal (and I've looked!). So if you own and have read/used Cities, maybe you could throw some comments on it my way.

I do have some specific questions:
The book seems to be built around a series of random tables to generate city details (ala Ruins of Hyboria). Are all of these tables collected in one spot at the end of the book, or does the user have to wade through the whole thing to hit all the tables?

Despite being branded for Conan, how effective are the city generators for other sub-genres of fantasy? My tastes lean heavily in the S&S direction, but its always nice to find inspiration for more medium levels of fantasy as well (say, World of Greyhawk level fantasy).

I'm a big fan of Pinnacle's Savage World of Solomon Kane. How much tweaking would be required to using Cities in a slightly more modern (17th century) setting with a S&S bent?

Thanks,
Tom

 

[tneva82]

Are all of these tables collected in one spot at the end of the book, or does the user have to wade through the whole thing to hit all the tables?

Well whole book isn't full of them since there are ready made cities there as well. Tables would be spread between pages 5-50. However since process is linear you can easily just flip over as you keep rolling. No need to go back and forth.

Despite being branded for Conan, how effective are the city generators for other sub-genres of fantasy? My tastes lean heavily in the S&S direction, but its always nice to find inspiration for more medium levels of fantasy as well (say, World of Greyhawk level fantasy).

Not sure but I don't see anything sticking out as sore thumb as forcing it to Conan(actually from this forum seems too non-conan like seems to be big annoyance for some here. Dunno. I found this useful myself).

 

[BluSponge]

Well whole book isn't full of them since there are ready made cities there as well. Tables would be spread between pages 5-50. However since process is linear you can easily just flip over as you keep rolling. No need to go back and forth.

Yeah, but that still leads to a lot of flipping and needless wear and tear on the spine, especially since it's softcover. Maybe I should get it in PDF and compile the tables myself.

Tneva, I'm starting to suspect you are the only person on these forums with a copy of the book.

Tom

 

[VincentDarlage]

I have a copy, but I haven't really read through it and I haven't used it yet for a game.

 

[tneva82]

Maybe I should get it in PDF and compile the tables myself.

That's of course possibility ;-) This is probably the sort of book that's good candinate for PDF as well since it's less likely one you are going to need to flip through middle of game. More of pre-game preparation book for GM.

Tneva, I'm starting to suspect you are the only person on these forums with a copy of the book.

Well there wouldn't be complaining about lack of conan feel I have read from this forum if that was the case ;-)

 

[Hervé]

I own a copy of the book, too and wasn't that much enthralled by the city generator. I liked the second part (with description of hyborian cities) better, though I found in overall that the book was inferior to his companion, the excellent Ruins of Hyboria, which follows more or less the same format.

I found strange to have a city book without maps, even if I know I should get used to this with the Goose... :wink:

I have hopes for the next volume, Catacombs. Wait and see...

 

[tneva82]

I own a copy of the book, too and wasn't that much enthralled by the city generator. I liked the second part (with description of hyborian cities) better, though I found in overall that the book was inferior to his companion, the excellent Ruins of Hyboria, which follows more or less the same format.

Ironically I found ruins to be less useful ;-)

Maybe it's just personal preferences. I prefer cities over ruins anyway. Ruins gives me nice building blocks for history of ruins but didn't spark as much plot hook ideas running through my head as the cities did. Might be because I have never been that much of a fan of ruin exploration and Conan doesn't even have fantasy creatures to inhabit them.

I have hopes for the next volume, Catacombs. Wait and see...

I'm waiting that one as well but WHERE IS IT!?! It was supposed to be released on may but no sight of that. It's not in Conan range. It's on on coming releases. It appears nowhere and you can only find it through search function where it is still listed as pre-order item. :evil:

By Crom release that book Mongoose! :twisted:

 

[BluSponge]

I found strange to have a city book without maps, even if I know I should get used to this with the Goose... :wink:

I discovered a long time ago that maps were completely superfluous to my needs when running city adventures. Outside of needing something to understand how the various districts relate to each other in terms of space, what does a map offer? I've never run a game so micromanaged that the players need street by street directions, and "what's next door?" is generally up to the needs of the narrative. However, having tools that help me generate interesting locations and secrets behind otherwise innocuous shops and storefronts are of great interest to me. Thus my interest in Cities of Hyboria.

I have hopes for the next volume, Catacombs. Wait and see...

I'm interested in that one as well. Conan-style dungeons! What's not to love?!

Tom

 

[BluSponge]

That's of course possibility ;-) This is probably the sort of book that's good candinate for PDF as well since it's less likely one you are going to need to flip through middle of game. More of pre-game preparation book for GM.

I'm leaning that way more and more. Save a few bucks and get more utility, not to mention the ability to modify the information to better suit my needs.

Well there wouldn't be complaining about lack of conan feel I have read from this forum if that was the case ;-)

Those critiques must be buried deep in other threads. I've only found one other thread related to Cities, and that was yours. But I see a few other owners are peeking out now, so hopefully I'll get a better idea of the product and more answers to my questions (Thanks everyone!).

Tom

 

[VincentDarlage]

I discovered a long time ago that maps were completely superfluous to my needs when running city adventures.

I discovered the same thing long, long ago. I've played various RPGs for years without city maps.

 

[zozotroll]

I have had players that want every street. For many years, City State of the Invincible Overlord became the base city for every game regardless of setting or game system.

Not every group has been like that of course, but sometimes there are those that want one. I suppose a lot also depends on if you have many in city adventures.

 

[cbrunish]

For me personally I like have the maps. Maybe it laziness, not sure, :lol:, but it helps me out with knowing where everything is. But, I did have a DM that did not use a map for the City of Greyhawk but just winged it. Worked well.

 

[BluSponge]

For me personally I like have the maps. Maybe it laziness, not sure, :lol:, but it helps me out with knowing where everything is. But, I did have a DM that did not use a map for the City of Greyhawk but just winged it. Worked well.

Oh, don't get me wrong. I *LOVE* maps of all stripes, including city maps. In fact, I bought the Kalamar city map compendium for exactly that reason. Besides, city maps are probably the only type of map I have trouble creating myself.

But that doesn't change the fact that they are almost never used in play. They look great on my wall, or tucked away in a binder, but beyond that they never really see much use at all. So for me, maps take a back seat to more important information.

Tom

 

[bradius]

I've used 'Cities' not too long ago to generate a Stygian port village. and to flesh out another, larger Stygian port town. I found it to be useful. But not exceptional. I'm glad I own it, but it just isn't sexy enough to make it exciting.

On the other hand, I use Ruins of Hyboria all the time. It's fantastic!

Also, I love maps!

 

[David St-Michel]

I've had both games in which we had no maps at all, and games in which we had super-detailed maps of every housing block of the city.

Both have their ups and downs.

Personally, I like to have maps. At least a global map of the world I play in. It at least allows me to calculate how long it takes to get from one point to another, instead of "some time later..."

And it also helps to get a visual of the country and areas the PCs go through.

But that's just me. I like drawing maps, even if I suck at it.